RSS Feed
Sponsored by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Learn More
Making Global Light Work For You
Problem: You applied a drop shadow to an object on one layer, then later you applied a bevel on another layer, but in the Bevel and Emboss options in the Layer Style dialog, you notice that the position of your drop shadow just moved when you changed the angle of your bevel. Reason: Adobe uses a feature (that acts like a bug) called Global Light. The idea behind it makes sense, yet we’ve never run into the scenario it was created for. The idea is this: You’ve created an image with lots of drop shadows, all casting in a particular direction. If the client saw your work and said, “Hey, instead of having the shadows go down and to the right, can we make all the shadows go up and to the left?” If that unlikely event ever occurred, you’d be set, because all you’d have to do is move one shadow and all the other shadows on other layers would move to the exact same angle. It’s a great idea; it just never happens (okay, it’s probably happened somewhere, once). Solution: In the Layer Style dialog, deselect the Use Global Light checkbox. Now you can move the angle of your current layer style separately from the rest of your image. Life is good once more.
No Comments
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
Photoshop Tutorials
Design Effects
Corey shows how to use the luminosity of an image to create a cool design effect and spice up your simple photos.
Stylized Comic Book Effect
Using this effect, you can transform anyone into a comic book character with a halftone, saturated look.
Text Shape Layers
Converting text into shapes allows you to distort the text as you like while retaining straight, clean edges.
-
Stylized Background
This week, Corey is inspired by a Hollywood poster to figure out how to create a colorful background pattern.
-
3D Design
Using 3D tools in Photoshop CS4 Extended to create a logo element.
-
Bullet Hole Brushes
Here we will uses a series of custom shapes to create a bullet hole on a brush.
-
Displaced Effects
Here is a quick and easy way to use displacement maps to create a cool grunge look.
-
Animate a Flying Bird using Illustrator and Flash, Part 1
In this two-part tutorial, J. Schuh demonstrates how to animate a flying bird using Illustrator and Flash. -
Animate a Flying Bird using Illustrator and Flash, Part 2
In this two-part tutorial, J. Schuh demonstrates how to animate a flying bird using Illustrator and Flash. -
Center Align CSS-Based Layout
Geoff Blake uses Dreamweaver to center align his css-based webpage design. -
Soundbooth Audio Files with Flash Video
Soundbooth is a useful tool for creating audio for Flash video. Soundbooth's preset scores can be set to length and easily added to Flash movie projects.
The Clone Source Panel
This panel has a couple of neat features for people who spend a lot of time in cloning. You can now set up a series of preset areas in the Clone Stamp tool. Simply click on one of the icons at the top of the Clone Source panel and Option-click (PC: Alt-click) on a point. That will save that location to the first icon. Click on the second icon and do the same thing. Now you can save a series of location points and go back by just clicking on the icon.
